Riding a Bike...

When I was a kid, bike riding was really fun - and safe. No gears, no helmets, no special tires or peddles. SAFE.

Adam is 15 and very athletic. He's a good boy. Spoiled, but a good boy. He and several of his friends have taken up roadbiking. At first I thought, "Well how nice is that?" Out riding bikes, nice and slow, looking at the scenery, maybe stopping every once in a while to watch a coyote or deer. Peaceful - and SAFE.



I should have known better.

Adam has never been one that was safe. Every sport he gets into has to be aggressive and dangerous. Aggressive roller blading, aggressive skiing, and now - God help me! - aggressive biking. He's got those shoes with doohickies on the bottom that "clip" into the special pedals we put on his bike. Now really, how safe is that to have your shoes semi-permanently attached to your bike? That's just danger waiting to happen.

Yesterday, he and his friend Jake went on two bike rides - "17 miles", he proudly told me, "in 23 minutes". Of course, up here, it's all up and down hills. Then he proceeded to tell me how they got going 50 miles an hour down one of the hills. (He has a speedometer and odometer on his bike.)

"Well you better just be careful! You know that ALL it takes is one tiny rock and BAM! down you go! If you hit the pavement going that fast, it's gonna scrape every bit of hide off your body! Now do you really want to be one big scab?! You better slow down or you're really gonna hurt yourself!"

I was practically hysterical picturing what could happen to my son at 50 miles an hour...

"Mom! Stop it! You're not supposed to be telling me stuff like that! What if I decide to start racing? I don't need to be worried about stuff like that happening, I need to be worried about winning."

Well, I wonder if they make bike suits out of bubble wrap. Maybe I need to invent one.


I'm off to Reno with mom for a few days for my birthday. Hopefully when I get back, my son will still be recongnizable. I'm very worried...